CHICAGO — The College Football Playoff has turned strength of schedule into a constant talking point, with each conference claiming its road to the postseason is most daunting.

Hoping to set themselves apart when playoff selection time comes around, Big Ten teams plan to play at least one nonconference game against a Power Five opponent and eliminate FCS schools from their schedules starting in 2016 when the league goes to a nine-game conference slate.

Guard Tyler Ulis cried. Center Dakari Johnson stared blankly ahead. Talk was barely above a whisper. Now wasn’t the right time to start discussing the future.

They could barely discuss the present.

Saturday night’s 71-64 Final Four loss to Wisconsin was a stunning end for the Wildcats (38-1), who came up two games short of the unbeaten championship season that could have established their place in college basketball history.

INDIANAPOLIS — Amid all the wins and championships for Duke under Mike Krzyzewski, defense was always a constant: Blue Devils chasing ballhandlers, harassing them into mistakes and pressuring them farther and farther from the basket.

The Blue Devils needed some tweaks this time around.

The young group didn’t always play with the kind of lockdown intensity as its predecessors. And there were a couple of notably porous midyear showings that begged the question of whether this year’s Blue Devils defended well enough to win Coach K’s fifth national championship.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A person familiar with the negotiations says Alabama has offered its men’s basketball job to former NBA coach Avery Johnson.

The person says Johnson and Alabama are working on the details of a deal. The person spoke to The Associated Press Sunday on condition of anonymity because no announcement has been made about the coaching search.

No. 18 Flagler College got a strong pitching performance from starter Mike O’Reilly (5-2) en route to an 11-5 win at Georgia Regents University on Friday in Augusta in a Peach Belt Conference baseball game.

Flagler improved to 25-7 overall and 12-6 in the Peach Belt. GRU Augusta fell to 12-19 overall and 6-10 in conference play.

O’Reilly set the tone early by retiring the first eight batters he faced. He allowed seven hits, two earned runs, walked one and struck out a career-high 11 batters in eight innings of work. MacLain Larson finished the ninth.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Boston University forward Jack Eichel, North Dakota goalie Zane McIntyre and Harvard forward Jimmy Vesey have been selected as the three finalists for the Hobey Baker award, for the best player in college hockey.

The Hobey Baker organization made the announcement Thursday. The winner will be revealed April 10 in Boston, the site of the NCAA Frozen Four.

Eichel, an 18-year-old freshman, is expected to be picked first or second in the NHL draft this summer. He has 24 goals and 43 assists in 38 games for the Terriers.

Flagler College split a Peach Belt Conference softball doubleheader with the University of South Carolina Aiken on Wednesday at J.H. Satcher Field. The Saints took the opener 4-3 while the Pacers took game two, 7-1.

Flagler is now 9-30 and 2-12 in the Peach Belt. USC Aiken goes to 18-6 overall and 9-3 in conference play.

In the opener, the Saints rallied from a 3-0 deficit by scoring two runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Haleigh Corbally (4-8) also turned in a solid performance in the circle scattering seven hits, allowing three runs and fanning seven.

INDIANAPOLIS — The College Football Playoff selection committee liked the way the first season went so much, it will recommend the status quo for year two.

The committee plans to release its first weekly rankings of the 2015 season on Nov. 3.

Committee chairman Jeff Long said Thursday the panel will recommend to the conference commissioners that there should be no changes to the rankings routine. Following the ninth week of the regular season, the 13-member panel will meet in person in the Dallas area and the rankings will come out each Tuesday.

INDIANAPOLIS — Twenty-four years ago, UNLV arrived in Indianapolis for a coronation disguised as a Final Four.

The Runnin’ Rebels were a college basketball juggernaut. They hadn’t lost all season. In fact, they hadn’t lost for 45 straight games, a streak that started with a run in the previous season to a national championship.

UNLV, led by Jerry Tarkanian, the towel-chewing defensive genius, arrived in Indianapolis needing two wins to become the first undefeated national champion since Indiana in 1976.